Siamun

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Siamun

Neterkheperre or Netjerkheperre-setepenamun Siamun was the sixth pharaoh

Pharaoh

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
during the Twenty-first dynasty

Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-First, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Third Intermediate Period....
. He built extensively in Lower Egypt for a king of the Third Intermediate Period and is regarded as one of the most powerful rulers of this Dynasty after Psusennes I

Psusennes I

Psusennes I, or [Greek language ???s?????], Psibkhanno or Hor-Pasebakhaenniut I [Egyptian language ?r-p3-sb3-?ˁ?--n?wt] was the third Pharaoh of the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt who ruled between 1047 – 1001 BC....
. Siamun's prenomen, Netjerkheperre-Setepenamun, means "Like a God is The Manifestation of Re, Chosen of Amun" while his name means 'son of Amun.'

un was erroneously credited with a reign of only 9 Years by Manetho

Manetho

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Siamun'

Start a new discussion about 'Siamun'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Neterkheperre or Netjerkheperre-setepenamun Siamun was the sixth pharaoh

Pharaoh

Ancient Egypt

Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt

Psusennes I

Reign Length

Siamun was erroneously credited with a reign of only 9 Years by Manetho

Manetho

Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic dynasty, ca. 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca ....
, a figure which is now universally amended to 19 Years by all scholars on the basis of a Year 17 I Shemu day [lost] inscription in fragment 3B, lines 3-5 dated to Siamun from the Karnak Priestly Annals. It records the induction of Hori, son of Nespaneferhor into the Priesthood at Karnak. This date was a lunar Tepi Shemu feast day. Based on the calculation of this lunar Tepi Shemu feast, Year 17 of Siamun has been shown by the German Egyptologist Rolf Krauss to be equivalent to 970 BC. Hence, Siamun would have taken the throne about 16 years earlier in 986 BC. A stela dated to Siamun's Year 16 records a land-sale between some minor priests of Ptah

Ptah

In Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land....
at Memphis.

The Year 17 inscription is an important palaeographical development because it is the first time in Egyptian recorded history that the word pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
was employed as a title and linked directly to a king's royal name--as in Pharaoh Siamun here. Henceforth, references to Pharaoh Psusennes (Psusennes II here), Pharaoh Shoshenq, Pharaoh Osorkon and so forth become commonplace. Prior to Siamun's reign and all throughout the Middle and New Kingdom, the word pharaoh referred only to the office of the king.

Monuments

According to the French Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal, Siamun doubled the size of the Temple of Amun at Tanis and initiated various works at the Temple of Horus at Mesen. He also built at Heliopolis

Heliopolis (ancient)

Heliopolis , meaning sun-city, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian Nome . Its name also refers to an unrelated Heliopolis of Cairo, also known as ??? ???????, Masr al-gidedah ....
and at Piramesse where a surviving stone block bears his name. Siamun constructed and dedicated a new temple to Amun at Memphis with 6 stone columns and doorways which bears his royal name. Finally, he bestowed numerous favours onto the Memphite Priests of Ptah. In Upper Egypt, he generally appears eponymously on a few Theban monuments although Siamun's High Priest of Amun at Thebes, Pinedjem II, organised the removal and re-burial of the New Kingdom

New Kingdom

The New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian History of Ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and Twentieth dynasty of Egypt....
royal mummies from the Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th century BC to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the Pharaoh and powerful nobles of the Conventional Egyptian chronology#New Kingdom ....
in several hidden mummy caches at Deir El-Bahari Tomb DB320

DB320

Tomb DB320 is located next to Deir el-Bahri, in the Theban Necropolis, opposite modern Luxor contained an extraordinary cache of mummified remains and funeral equipment of more than 50 kings, queens, royals and various nobility....
for protection from looting. These activities are dated from Year 1 to Year 10 of Siamun's reign.

One fragmentary but well known surviving triumphal relief scene from the Temple of Amun at Tanis depicts an Egyptian pharaoh smiting his enemies with a mace. The king's name is explicitly given as [ (Neterkheperre Setepenamun) Siamun, beloved of Am(un)] in the relief and there can be no doubt that this person was Siamun as the eminent British Egyptologist, Kenneth Kitchen

Kenneth Kitchen

Kenneth Anderson Kitchen is Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool, England....
stresses in his book, On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Siamun appears here "in typical pose brandishing a mace to strike down prisoners(?) now lost at the right except for two arms and hands, one of which grasps a remarkable double-bladed ax by its socket." The writer observes that this double bladed axe or 'halbread' has a flared crescent shaped blade which is close in form to the Aegean influenced double axe but is quite distinct from the Palestinian/Canaanite double headed axe which has a different shape that resembles an X. Thus, Kitchen concludes Siamun's foes were the Philistines who were descendants of the Aegean based Sea Peoples and that Siamun was commemorating his recent victory over them at Gezer by depicting himself in a formal battle scene relief at the Temple in Tanis

Tanis, Egypt

Tanis , the Greek language name of ancient Djanet , is a city in the north-eastern Nile delta of ancient Egypt. It lies on the Tanitic branch of the Nile ....
. More recently Paul S Ash has put forward a detailed argument that Siamun's relief portrays a fictitious battle. He points out that in Egyptian reliefs Philistines are never shown holding an axe, and that there is no archaeological evidence for Philistines using axes. He also argues that there is nothing in the relief to connect it with Philistia or the Levant.

Foreign policy

Under Siamun, Egypt embarked upon an active foreign policy and he is most probably the Pharaoh who formed an alliance with the new ruler of Israel, King Solomon against the Philistines. Solomon, the son of David, had just assumed power around 971 or 970 BCE which was certainly around the middle of Siamun's reign. As part of the arrangements within this Egyptian-Israelite alliance, the Egyptian king attacked and laid waste the Philistine city of Gezer in part to safeguard Egypt's commercial ties with Phoenicia--something which the Philistines were threatening--and also to take advantage of the Philistines' momentary weakness after King David's series of Biblical wars against their state. Solomon, for his part, was then permitted to permanently secure his kingdom's southern borders by occupying Gezer, which henceforth, remained a part of Ancient Israel. The alliance was consecrated by a royal marriage between Solomon and a daughter of the Egyptian king.

Identification with the destruction of Gezer

The only mention in the Bible of a Pharaoh who might be Siamun is "Pharaoh King of Egypt had come up and captured Gezer; he destroyed it by fire, killed the Canaanites who dwelt in the town, and gave it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife. As shown above, Kenneth Kitchen believes that Siamun conquered Giza and gave it to Solomon. Others such as Paul S Ash and Mark W. Chavalas disagree, and Chavalas states that "it is impossible to conclude which Egyptian monarch ruled concurrently with David and Solomon". Professor Edward Lipinski argues that Gezer, then unfortified, was destroyed late in the 10th century (and thus not contemporary with Solomon) and that the most likely Pharaoh was Shoshenq I. "The attempt at relating the destruction of Gezer to the hypothetical relationship between Siamun and Solomon cannot be justified factually, since Siamun's death precedes Solomon's accession."

Although Siamun's original royal tomb has never been located, scholars believe that he is one of "two completely decayed mummies in the antechamber of NRT-III (Psusennes I's tomb)" on the basis of ushabti

Ushabti

The ushabti funerary figurines were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as substitutes for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife....
s found on them which bore this king's name. Siamun's original tomb may have been inundated by the Nile which compelled a reburial of this king in Psusennes I's tomb.